Very quickly, the reaction has been that there is little new in the recommendations. Rather, they stick to the tried and true, making some allowances to reflect voguish industries. The main thrust in the immediate future is to lower the cost of doing business. To this end, the committee recommends that income and corporate taxes be cut, and that a rise is postponed in employer contributions to the Central Provident Fund, the state-run retirement fund. All sensible stuff--yet something you'd expect to take less than a year to figure out. Cutting costs is something Singapore does well, after all. To be fair, Mr Lee reportedly explained it this way: "If the stones look like they are in the same place, it's because we have put them back very carefully."

And that statement perhaps sums it up: Having surveyed the future, the committee retreated to the safety of the familiar, making sure to leave all the stones in their proper places. Thus, for example,Singapore should expand its export market for services and higher value-added goods; and in case private companies are too timid, the committee suggests that the government's Temasek Holdings should lead by investing in new industries. If it was microchips yesterday, today it's maybe DNA chips.

Indeed, we wonder if the calculus involved in investment decisions isn't the nub of the issue facing Singapore. Take for starters the CPF and its effect on capital allocation. Many in the private sector had hoped for an overhaul of the fund, which admittedly has made Singaporeans extremely thrifty savers. The trouble is that much of workers' very substantial savings are invested through the centralized decision-making auspices of the CPF. Arguably, more diversification in capital distribution would better serve the economy, especially in funding the entrepreneurs that many hope would take the economy in new directions. Then again, Singapore reveals something about its attitude towards this class of businesses by the committee's proposal that "the government designate a minister to be responsible for driving initiatives to develop a more entrepreneurial Singapore." Ouch.

Paused at a crossroads, the question is whether the old virtue of frugality--along with a little tinkering with a dated economic paradigm--is enough to carry Singapore forward comfortably, or whether prudence in fact dictates a derring-do to loosen constraints that hold back a multitude of risk-takers. For now, the city apparently has decided to stick with the Confucian ethos.

We wonder if Singapore wouldn't do better if it changed its mind.

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